Forum:Malling Online to continue in a new form
Text of broadcast message, Philralph @[[w:c:sca21:Sustainable Community Action:Community Portal|'sca21']] 17:51, May 20, 2010 (UTC): Malling Online to continue in a new form A few weeks ago I wrote to you about the future of Malling Online. After much thought and a lot of work on potential alternatives, I'm happy to announce that Malling Online can continue, but with a new host. The new site is a wiki, but one designed to include many features found on social networking sites, such as blogs, events, news, forums, etc. Please read the full text of this announcement, with some explanation, on our new wiki at (forum link here) You are welcome to leave any comments, questions, etc - simply add them underneath the forum post. continues... None of the ning options looked suitable to me, and I was unable to find a suitable alternative social network host. I realise that for many people a wiki will seem less user friendly, but there are many plus points: much greater flexibility, extensive help resources, inclusion of related wiki articles (eg Malling Action Partnership's full 'Healthcheck' document), etc. I hope you will consider joining / signing in to the new wiki (you might want to have a look at our Community Portal). Please feel free to ask if you have questions or encounter problems, for example by leaving messages on my user talk page Once ning are aware that we are not staying with them, they are likely to give us a maximum of 30 days to continue using the old site. So at the moment I'm planning to remove the ning-based site around the end of June. A lot of the info on the ning-based site has been copied across, but if you find some of your contributions haven't been copied across, you are welcome to do so, or of course add new information. You may also wish to take your own copies of any of your contributions before the site gets taken down. Anyone who has already signed in to the SCA wiki can use the same username and password for Malling Online wiki. As membership of Wikia (our new host) runs into the thousands, you may need to choose a fairly distinctive username. Wikis undergo continuous improvement. Malling Online wiki, as a very new wiki, will undoubtedly have lots of rough and ready corners, but with your help we can make it much much better than the old site. Philralph @[[w:c:sca21:Sustainable Community Action:Community Portal|'sca21']] 17:51, May 20, 2010 (UTC) A note about costs, adverts and signing-in Wikia hosting is funded by advertising, and has been for over 5 years. Signed in users get an advert-free version of the wiki, apart from the main page. The Community Portal acts as an alternative entry point for a completely advert-free editing experience. Any arrangement involving monetary costs, (which ning's proposals clearly do, but our new arrangement does not), carries with it the risk that costs may rise at any time, and by any amount. Whilst I'm happy to help build Malling Online as an online community, it was always envisaged as a fairly informal community / not-for-profit type project, or as someone else put it "just to make the world a better place". Even if funding could be found for a paid-for hosting arrangement, I do not myself wish to be invovled in the necessary and sometimes highly time-intensive administration which tends to accompany funded projects. Unfunded projects also do not have to be concerned about ensuring the sustainability of funding. Philralph @[[w:c:sca21:Sustainable Community Action:Community Portal|'sca21']] 17:51, May 20, 2010 (UTC)